Kale With Coconut (Kale Thoran)

This green is tough! I had not tried cooking it till recently because I wasn't sure what I wanted to make with it. Then my parents dined at a Sri Lankan restaurant where they tried kale with coconut and they loved it. So there it was, my inspiration! A favorite specialty, of mine, from Kerala is their thoran, sort of a stir fry. So I decided to make thoran out of kale.

For this you will need

1 Bunch - Kale (I used the curly green)
1 Tablespoon - Coconut (I used frozen and thawed grated coconut)
3-4 pods - Garlic
2 Teaspoons - Red Chili Powder
1 Teaspoon - Turmeric Powder
2 Teaspoons - Cumin Seeds
Few Curry Leaves (Optional)
1/2 Red Onion - Fine Chopped
1 Teaspoon - Mustard Seeds
2-3 Teaspoons - Oil
Salt as per your taste
A pinch of sugar

Method -

Chop kale as fine as possible. In a flat bottom pan add the oil. Once hot, add the mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the chopped onions and fry till they turn light pink.

Now add the chopped kale, a pinch of sugar and salt. Toss, cover and let cook for a couple of minutes. In the meantime, blend the cumin, coconut, red chili powder, turmeric powder, garlic and curry leaves coarsely. Not a fine paste and do not add water. Once the kale is cooked, add the ground mixture, toss and serve.

 

Paneer, Rasagulla and Rasmalai!

The process for making Rasmalai is quite long and along the way I will tell you how to make the famous Indian cheese, paneer and another sweet Rasagulla. Rasagulla and Rasmalai are delectable sweets from the eastern state of West Bengal in India. Bengalis have perfected the art of making light, airy balls of paneer (cheese from India) and filling every globule with sweetness! Rasmalai especially is a rich dish with few ingredients but needs some skill and practice. It has a smooth after taste that leaves you wanting for more :)

For this you will need -

4 Cups - Milk ( I used whole milk)
2 Tablespoons - White Vinegar ( mixed with 2-3 tablespoons of water)
Muslin/ Cheese cloth

1 Cup - Sugar
4 Cups - Water

1 Tin - Condensed Milk
2 Cups - Whole Milk
Nuts - Almonds and Pistachios roughly chopped (I used only almonds)
5-6 Strands - Saffron (Optional)

Method -

Bring the four cups of milk to a boil, stir occasionally to avoid burning the milk at the bottom. Once it starts to boil, add the vinegar and water mixture little by little (say in about three parts). Keep stirring and the milk fat will separate out leaving whey water behind. Some people use lemon for the same purpose but I prefer vinegar as lemon has a very strong flavor that the resulting paneer will take. It should look like this.

Use the muslin cloth to separate the paneer from the whey water. Don't throw the whey water as it is quite rich in nutrients. Use it to make curries or to cook rice in or to make the dough for rotis or drink as such with a pinch of sugar. I didn't get a picture of the paneer but basically wait for the entire water to drain out by hanging the muslin cloth for about 20 minutes and then squeezing out as much of the water as possible. You will be left with a nice soft ball of white cheese.

Now, the hard part. Knead the cheese really well for about 15 minutes. You will know it is ready when you can make smooth balls out of it. I should have kneaded a bit longer! For the quantities mentioned, you should get about 20 balls. Make small balls as they double their size when cooked. Flatten them slightly for rasmalai or leave them round for rasagulla.

 

 

Now in a thick bottom vessel, make the sugar syrup with one cup sugar and four cups of water. When the syrup comes to a boil, add the balls. Cook on medium high, do not reduce the flame. Cook for about 15-20 minutes till the balls double in size. Which means ensure you have a big enough vessel in the first place to accommodate the fully blown balls!

 

Cool and serve chilled as Rasagullas! As they cool, their size does reduce a bit, don't worry about that.

For Rasmalai, heat two more cups of milk with the saffron strands so the saffron hue spreads throughout the milk. Then add the condensed milk, you can change the quantity of condensed milk depending on your liking of sweetness and thickness. I used a whole tin! We are a sweet toothed family! After about five minutes, slightly and gently squeeze the rasagullas and put it in the milk. Add the chopped nuts and cook for about 10 minutes so the milk infuses into the cheese balls.

Serve chilled!